Ivy

From ivy, the name of a plant. An ivy branch used to be hung outside an establishment to advertise that it sold alcohol, so it may originally been an occupationational surname for the proprietor of such an establishment. (Can this⁽⁺⁾ etymology be sourced?)

Ivy (plural Ivys or Ivies)

1. A female given name from English; popular in the UK in the beginning of the 20th century.
   • 1882 Something to Read. (Edited by) Edwin John Bret: Something to read novelette. page 254:

     Little Ivy's life, as the months pass on, is a quiet, uneventful one, but exceedingly happy withal: - - - "You have a strange name, my dear," the old lady says one day, and the child answers in her serious, old-fashioned way, "Yes, so everyone has always said. You know my mamma died when I was born, and papa named me that because he said that I came when his heart was all aching with sorrow, and twined around it and comforted him."

   • 1974, Patrick White, The Cockatoos: Shorter Novels and Stories., Cape, →ISBN, page 204:

     Kind people apply all the milder words to your face; only Father ever called it ugly. Ugly Ivy mingy as her name. Father himself was handsome and drunken. Mother had wanted 'Ivy' simple and yet pretty and for once stuck to her guns. You wished she hadn't.

2. A surname.

Ellipsis of Ivy League.

Ivy (plural Ivies)

1. (informal) A university that is part of the Ivy League.

From English Ivy, from ivy.

Ivy

1. a female given name from English

Borrowed from English Ivy, from ivy.

• (Standard Tagalog) IPA^(key): /ˈʔajvi/
  • IPA^(key): (more native-sounding) /ˈʔajbi/
• Rhymes: -ajvi, (more native-sounding) -ajbi
• Syllabification: I‧vy

Ivy (Baybayin spelling ᜀᜌ᜔ᜊᜒ)

1. a female given name from English